April 11th 2019

‘Don’t get me started on Wagon Wheels’
Kevin Varty

The majority of us enjoy eating sweets and chocolate, so this talk should appeal to everyone. Come along and listen to Kevin Varty give his light hearted talk on the subject of chocolate.

Review of the Evening

Kevin introduced himself by saying that he had heard a man talking about the decline in the size of Mars bars when he heard him say - 'and don't get me started on Wagon Wheels.' He thought that it was a lovely title for a talk so began his research.

Coffee makes it possible to get out of bed
Chocolate makes it worthwhile.

He told us tales about a variety of chocolate sweets which had us laughing, joining in with advertising jingles, nodding our heads in recognition of memories and gasping in amazement.

He produced a series of slides telling us the timeline of sweets, mainly from the mid 1800s to the latter part of the 20th century. Some of our favourite sweets and chocolates were in fact production mistakes which turned out to be a hit with customers. Amongst those were, Kendal Mint Cake which was fondant sugar that had hardened too much, a chewing gum recipe which turned into bubble gum, chocolate rippled by mistake and ended up as Flake and Aero which was over bubbled in the  making. Jelly Babies started life as Unwanted Babies, then Peace Babies and finally in 1953, Jelly Babies when a tummy button was added. Chocolate Oranges started off as Chocolate Lemons which didn't sell, then Chocoalte Apples which didn't either.

In 1933 the first descriptions of chocolates in boxes became the norm as prior to that it was a lottery as to which centre you were going to end up with!

A life changing thought - Maltesers started off life as Energy balls for pregnant women.

The next quote is not accurate as Kevin took the slide off before I had chance to write it down but the gist of it is -

Chocolate comes from cocoa, which comes from a tree .
Therefore it is a plant, which is like salad.
So it is good for you!

Kevin was thoroughly entertaining and we hope to invite him back to talk to us soon, about Magic Lanterns and Radio Days.

Kevin Varty talking to members